Our Favorite Social Media Resources

Oh, social media! How do we love thee? Let us count the ways! We have LIKES on Facebook, re-tweets on Twitter, pinning on Pinterest, and, well…you get the idea.

Of course, even though it’s easy to understand how awesome social media is, it’s not always easy understanding everything there is to know about social media. If you own or work for a small business, you’re already juggling ten million balls in the air. When it comes to social media, what you need is info that’ll make your life easier, not harder.

Never fear – that’s why we’re here. And that’s the point of this blog post: to share some of our favorite social media resources that will make it all easier.

But keep in mind that you don’t need to—and you shouldn’t—follow all of them…that would be way too overwhelming. Instead, browse through the list and see which one or two makes sense for you to subscribe to. For example, if you love Facebook and have fun promoting your business on that medium, then it will make sense for you to subscribe to something like All Facebook (but not necessarily All Twitter).

How do we recommend approaching this little assignment? Take some time out away from the office. Grab your laptop or iPad and head to a coffee shop with free WiFi and browse through these resources. Oh, and one more thing before you get started: be sure to protect your laptop or iPad while promoting your business at the same time by ordering a custom iPad sleeve (pictured to the right) or a custom laptop bag. (See what we did there? Hey, we are a promotional products company after all! :) )

Here are the social media resources we recommend:

1. Wildfire’s Social Media Blog. Wildfire is quickly becoming one of the most respected names in the industry. We highly recommend the company’s free webinars, which always offer up a ton of useful information.

2. All Facebook. Do you go crazy every time Facebook makes changes? Do you love learning new strategies for engaging fans? Do you wonder whether you should buy stock in Facebook someday? All Facebook is the “unofficial Facebook blog,” but don’t let that stop you…almost all of the info the site offers is useful and on target. When you subscribe, you’ll receive a daily digest of highlighted articles, making it easy to pick and choose which ones to read.

3. All Twitter. The cousin to “All Facebook,” except the focus is on – you guessed it – the hugely popular social medium spawned by the now infamous little blue bird.

4. Mashable. Mashable, of course, goes way beyond coverage of just social media, but it has such a presence and provides such excellent coverage of social media topics, that we’d be remiss if we didn’t include it.

6. Social Media Examiner. If you have time to follow only one site dedicated to all things social media, then definitely consider Social Media Examiner. This is one of the most thorough sites out there, thanks to its dedicated staff and contributors (some of whom are the best and brightest names in the social media biz). We’d especially like to call your attention to the site’s roundup of the top 10 social media blogs of 2012.

We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention the hottest social media craze in 2012 – Pinterest. It’s been around since 2008, but the social medium truly “tipped” at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. Here’s a roundup of articles we recommend checking out to learn more.

4 Responses to Our Favorite Social Media Resources

A very helpful post–I haven’t used Allfacebook (simply because I didn’t think it sounded as useful as you say) — I will give it a try.

Spotify is quickly becoming a resource for social media so that is my vote for a favorite. You can go to http://www.spotify.com/ to engage with clients in a musically fun way as seen here http://www.thinkbigonline.com.au/20-must-have-play-list-for-spotify/ They suggest companies make a playlist and ask customers for input. Don’t think there’s one for printing or promotional products though. ;-) The divorce lawyer list and the beer distributors list are worth a look.